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The Australian Football Federation with the support of Australian Govt along with the Oceania Football Confederation have with the approval of AIFF decided to implement the award winning grassroots football development program “JUST PLAY” in Kerala on a pilot project basis.

The “JUST PLAY” program will be implemented by a Project Manager which will be a full time position based in Kochi. The Kerala Football Association on behalf of “JUST PLAY” invites applications from candidates who are interested to take up the posting.

The Project Manager will co-ordinate with the KFA as well as the Oceania Football Confederation to implement the program, he/she will also be responsible for expanding the program across the state, consult and work the state government, monitor and evaluate the program and report the same.

The candidate must be a Master’s Degree holder in Program Management/MBA/Economics/ Social Science and have 2 years professional experience in Program Management.

Selected candidate will be trained by Oceania Football Confederation and provided competitive remuneration package based on Skills and experience.

Applications must be mailed to KFA office by post or email on fakerala@rediffmail.com by latest Feb 25th evening.

Mr.Constantin Weiland FIFA Official along with AIFF officials Mr.Javier Ceppi , Mr.Shaji Prabhakar, Mr.Vijay Parthasaradhy, Ms.Roma Khanna conducted Inspection at JNI Stadium, Kaloor today in the presence of KFA President KMI Mather and General Secretary Anilkumar P. The team checked the infra structure and facilities at the Stadium. They have also visited the proposed training venues at KUFOS Ground, Fort Kochi Veli Ground, Govt: Boys Higher Secondary School Ground, Panampilly Nagar and Maharajas College Ground in the morning.

“As the Stadium is made of Natural Turf the training grounds also must be of the same “, the team conveyed to Mr. Mather. They will be sharing the report within another few days. The team left for Bombay by evening, expressing their hope to furnish the training grounds and the Stadium renovation work up to the FIFA standards within the time frame.

An article in Deccan Chronicle about the visit throws more insight. FIFA stipulates having four training grounds in a World Cup hosting city. Javier Ceppi the tournament director appointed by AIFF was quoted in DC saying :

Not official logo. FNI interpretation

“We need four training grounds that is the minimum. The grounds have to be ten times better than the current pitch”

He also emphasized on the need of bucket seats in the stadium for it to qualify for hosting the 2017 U-17 World cup. The second tier in Kochi JN stadium currently don’t have bucket seats installed.

It is also mentioned in the report that a confirmation on whether Kochi will be hosting the tournament would be available by January 2015.

With Kochi registering an average crowd of 47000 for ISL, the city has gathered attention from the authorities in terms of attracting crowd. If our local authorities wake up and work towards this goal, we will see Kochi hosting 2017 U-17 World Cup.

Kerala Football Association (KFA) has today tied up with The Ramco Cements Ltd and announced a football league where 12 teams would be in fray.

The MOU signed today with Ramco will support the following activities.

Kerala State Premier League :

A 12 team affair that includes a Kerala state youth team. The proposed league will take place between March to May 2014. The following teams are expected to take part – KSEB, Titanium, Kerala Police, AGs, SBT, Eagles FC, Golden Threads FC, Excise, Cochin Port Trust and the Kerala youth team.

Kerala State Inter-School District and State League :

An inter state district and state level school league to played in Home and Away format. The technical title sponsor of the league would be Eagles FC.

Santosh Trophy:

Ramco will be title sponsor of the Kerala team for the next Santosh Trophy competition to be held in Siliguri.

140 academies spread over 14 districts of Kerala will fight it out in an Academy league that has commenced in Kochi. Read more details on the same from the news clipping taken from Indian Express Kochi edition. Due credits to Adwaidh Rajan on reporting this interesting development from Kerala.

The overwhelmingly efficient and financially sound Kerala Cricket Association is wanting to lease major stadiums in Kerala. In a request to Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), KCA had expressed interest to least out Kochi Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for 30 years.

However, their interest to lease out the stadium for another 30 years has been annulled for the time being by the executive committee of GCDA. If reports in Malayalam media are anything to go by, there was a stiff resistance from members in the executive committee of GCDA against this move.

GCDA decided not to take the request forward and reports suggest that GCDA would review KCA’s request once the current lease tenure is over. KCA has currently leased out the stadium till 2015. They inked a deal with GCDA in 2010, on an agreement that they will pay 10 lakhs per year for the total control of the stadium.

Reports also suggest that Kerala may host the 2014 Nehru Cup and Kochi would be the only suitable venue for the competition in Kerala. Earlier this year, when Santosh Trophy took place in Kerala, the conflict of interest between KCA and Kerala Football Association had reared its ugly head. It was amicably resolved and Santosh Trophy was held in the stadium.

Cricket Associations of other states in India have their exclusive stadiums. While in Kerala, KCA’s pursuit of a cricket only stadium has met with numerous road blocks. Earlier this year KCA had expressed interest to lease out Kozhikode Corporation stadium which resulted in a lot of opposition from other sports associations and the football crazy crowd in Kozhikode.

We at Football News India believe that no city in Kerala should lease out stadiums to a particular sporting body as it could create monopolistic practices that would eventually be detrimental to other sports. We are hoping that GCDA would not ink a deal to lease out the stadium to KCA for 30 years.

Update : A report in Malayala Manorama dated 25th September reports that GCDA is planning to open a Facebook page and conduct a poll among the public seeking their opinion on handing over the stadium to KCA for 30 years.